K.D. Dowdall's Blog, page 25

Actions of High Schoolers–Historically Frightening

Reblogging this critically important and timely post regarding boys bullying Native Americans. Thank you, Professor French for posting.

charles french words reading and writing

I did not think, that at my age, I would be as shocked or frightened by a news story as I have been recently. Certainly the United States of America has become more coarse and more vulgar over the last few years. Following the pattern of the President, who regularly uses insults to degrade his opponents, many Americans seem to be following his lead.

Worse recently was the incident in which high school boys from a Catholic school, some wearing MAGA hats, confronted and insulted Mr. Nathan Phillips, a Native American of the Omaha Nation and a Vietnam War veteran while he was participating in the Indigenous Peoples’ March. In the video that has gone viral, the boys can be seen confronting and attempting to intimidate Mr. Phillips.

While watching the video, I got chills, not only for the shear ugliness of the racism and bullying behavior but also because…

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Guest Writer – Linda Bethea – Grandma and the Coat from Hell

Family stories are so rich in history and life ways and Linda’s story is no exception, as Linda and I have similar stories to share. Thank you to Sally for posting this great look into family life at a time when large families had to make do with less, but managed quite well with ingenuity and perseverance. Karen

Meeting People for Reasons and Seasons

This is an eye opening post by D. G. Kaye from http://sistersofthefey.com blog site! D. G.’s post reveals why people come and go in our lives and why some stay forever in our lives. Understanding why this happens is key to understanding who we are, what lessons we have learned and what still needs to be learned to become our best selves.

The Sisters of the Fey

Ever wonder why some of the friendships and relationships we once may have considered important in our lives at one time suddenly disappear from our lives?

Often, times we reflect back on our life relationships and catch ourselves wondering ‘whatever happened to so and so?’. Sometimes we remember why those people have exited our lives, and other times we can go back and analyze these relationships, looking back on what the significance was that person played in our lives. I refer to these short-term relationships as seasonal relationships for reasons – blessings and lessons.

These people who come into our lives for brief stints appear for reasons, and because they don’t remain in our lives indefinitely, they are classified as seasonal.

The universe has a way of knowing what we need in our lives at different times. There’s a popular phrase – What we focus on, we attract. For example…

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Spirals of Time #Writephoto

This is the kind of writing I love that has magic, romance, ghosts, and mystery.

Myths of the Mirror

photo by Sue Vincent

I’ve always known I would travel here, to the heathered moors and verdant hills, to wander narrow roadways past stone cottages with views of the cold northern sea. Perhaps it was the Brontes or Hardy who first entranced me with the raw emotion that seems embedded in the very soil, that sweeps through castle ruins and keens across ancient cairns and holy places.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on the pulse of my yearning. But after my accident, I chose to wait no more.

The stone chapel was once part of a larger manor. It’s a quaint place of colored glass and worn reliefs, of strange carvings above its arched doorway. But also a place of layered faiths and archaic mysteries, imbued with ghosts of the past like a spiritual lodestone. I can no more ignore it than deny my heart to beat.

The day…

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Smorgasbord Poetry – Colleen Chesebro #Tuesday #Poetry Challenge week 118 – #Etheree ‘Initiate and Crisp’

Colleen is a wonderful poet and writer of fairy tales and other works.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Lovely to be back in the swing of responding to Colleen’s Tuesday Poetry Challenge 118 with the synonyms this week of ‘Begin’ and ‘Fresh’

I have selected ‘Initiate’ and ‘crisp’ for my etheree… I hope you enjoy.

My thanks to Colleen for her weekly inspiration… I do hope you will head over and participate and there are new submission guidelines to follow, and now your poem will be read directly in Colleen’s recap post on Mondays.

Head over and become involved: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/01/08/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-118-begin-fresh-synonymsonly/

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What Is A Sentence From a Book (or two) You Love?

This post is a must read and add your favorite quote from a book you have read…or several much loved quotes from books.

charles french words reading and writing

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I was thinking recently of a variety of aspects of books that I love, including plot, theme, and character. As I was considering these elements, I realized that some books have extraordinary sentences. These lines might not encapsulate the entirety of those books, but they are beautiful and powerful.

I will offer two such quotations:

The first is the closing sentence from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, one of the most important novels ever written:

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known” (307).

The second offering is from A Soldier Of The Great War by Mark Helprin. This novel is, in my not too modest opinion, one of the absolute best novels ever written. With this book, Helprin takes his place among the…

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Happy New Year 2019!

This New Years Day Blessing is full of hope, peace, and joy for everyone and thank you Dr. French for this lovely post for the new year ahead.

charles french words reading and writing

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I want to wish everyone a happy, safe, joyous, and successful New Year! I wish peace, safety, and comfort to those who need it in the world. I wish courage to those who will face difficult challenges in their lives. I wish love and friendship to all.

I wish writers the discipline to keep writing and remember, do not worry about the quality of the first draft, just get it down! Happy Writing!

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#PoetryReadathon – The poetry and other great things bloggers part 2

Robbie, this is so wonderful and thank you for sharing. I especially love Debby’s Poem. It rings so true. Reblogging on Pen and Paper!

Robbie's inspiration

Geoff Le Pard

Geoff Le Pard (not Geoffrey, except to his mother) was born in 1956 and is a lawyer who saw the light. He started writing (creatively) in 2006 following a summer school course. Being a course junkie he had spells at Birkbeck College, twice at Arvon and most recently at Sheffield Hallam where he achieved an MA in Creative Writing. And what did he learn? That they are great fun, you meet wonderful people but the best lessons come from the unexpected places. He has a line of books waiting to be published but it has taken until now to find the courage to go live.

He blogs at https://geofflepard.com/ on anything and everything. His aim is for each novel to be in a different style and genre. Most people have been nice about his writing (though when his brother’s dog peed on the manuscript he was editing…

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Befriending My Harshest Critics by Author Edwin Hill

[image error]At Career Authors.com Posted by Our Special Guest | Oct 19, 2018 | Craft

https://careerauthors.com/bad-reviews/

Some career authors avoid reading reviews but I’m not one of them. For example, I came across this 1-star critique of my novel from a Goodreads reviewer: “This book is a mess.”

That was my first bad review. I remember reading it and being hit by the intensity of the language, the almost visceral dislike that seemed to spew from the reviewer’s words. This was a reader I hadn’t managed to connect with on any level—or at least that’s what it felt like at first. But after a few moments, I decided to step away and analyze what they were saying. After all, this wasn’t the first person who’d told me she didn’t like my writing. I’d been told the same thing by numerous agents who passed on representing me and publishing houses that passed on publishing my book—though the language in those passes had been considerably less direct. And I’d used those passes to help me push my novel further, till it had finally been ready to publish.

So, I wondered, how could I use this review? What could I learn from carefully reading negative reviews and taking them seriously?

Shape your message

When I start a new piece of writing, I always begin with the question, What would I want to read? It’s the only way I can possibly stay interested in a manuscript long enough to finish it. So one question I seek to pull from negative reviews is: Who wants to read what I write? Or how can I shape the way I talk about my book to better find those readers and maximize exposure?

Here’s the next sentence in that first negative review: “Much of the book is written from the perspective of the two bad guys.”

Well, there’s our disconnect. Little Comfort was inspired by the true story of Clark Rockefeller, and one of the central premises of my novel is that it follows a Tom Ripley-like-grifter as he wormed his way into a wealthy woman’s life. Knowing this character’s motivations is central to the story. All of that comes through in the jacket copy, but somehow this reviewer (and some later ones too) had missed that, and I wanted to know why. So, the first step was to adjust my message and make sure to highlight that connection to Clark Rockefeller anytime I spoke or wrote about the book.

A second reviewer offered up another clue. She wrote, “This is not a traditional mystery. Hester finds Sam. Quickly. Little Comfort is a challenging read and somewhat disappointing for a reader with different expectations.”

I read that passage a number of times, focusing in on “different expectations,” and asking myself what this reviewer might have wanted and not gotten. Little Comfort isn’t a whodunit, it’s a why-done-it, and the goal of the novel is to explore the aftermath of what happens when you find someone who doesn’t want to be found. Someone looking for a traditional mystery could be disappointed by it. So again, I adjusted my message, making sure to give potential readers as many clues as possible about the structure of the novel without giving away the story.

Tighten your writing

Five-star reviews are fantastic. For that reader, it means you’ve hit it out of the ballpark and found a way to connect. Four-star reviews are pretty good too, especially when you find reviewers who don’t grade on a curve. While above I focused on one- and two-star ratings, those are readers you’ve probably missed completely. Your book simply isn’t for them.

It’s the three-star reviews that I find especially useful to mine for information and direction on my writing. These people usually like my book—mostly—and when they’ve taken the time to write a review, it’s often thoughtful. Here’s where I try to find comments that ring true, asking myself where I could improve: could I have pushed the narrative or developed a character more or paid more attention to the details?

In one of the three-star reviews for Little Comfort, Melissa writes, “Who the hell keeps a key to their house in a fake rock right outside the front door?”

I like how direct Melissa was in her critique. I also don’t quite agree with her. That key’s placement is crucial to a plot point in the novel, and I know plenty of people who leave keys in pretty obvious places outside their houses. (Don’t come looking at my house, Melissa!) Still, there was something about this comment that hit home for me, and it took me a day or two to figure out what it was. This comment reminded me to pay attention to the details—the parts of the narrative that can throw readers like Melissa out of the story. While I know that novels don’t necessarily need to be factually accurate, they still need to seem that way to the reader. I know enough about myself and my own writing to know that I can sometimes give myself a pass on details, telling myself that the reader won’t notice. When a reader like Melissa says, “That would never happen,” I’ve lost them, so as an author my responsibility is to notice those details and fix them.

So at least I know this: as I finish up the edits in Hester Thursby #2, The Missing Ones, I have to ferret out any details that make me uncomfortable with my choices—or my own laziness!

The power of positive thinking

Always, always find a way to look on the bright side. In one recent one-star review, a Goodreads reviewer likened my writing to Louise Penny’s, and you know what? I’ll take that as a huge compliment, no matter how it’s spun. There are lots of reviews for Little Comfort over on Goodreads, and most of them are pretty positive. Take a look and decide whether the book is for you.

[image error]Edwin Hill was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and spent most of his childhood obsessing over The Famous Five, Agatha Christie, and somehow finding a way into C.S. Lewis’s wardrobe. After attending Wesleyan University, he headed west to San Francisco for the original dotcom boom. Later, he returned to Boston, earned an MFA from Emerson College, and switched gears to work in educational publishing, where he currently serves as the vice president and editorial director for Bedford/St. Martin’s, a division of Macmillan. He lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts with his partner Michael and his favorite reviewer, their lab Edith Ann, who likes his first drafts enough to eat them.

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Visit edwin-hill.com to learn more about Little Comfort.

 

Twas The Night Before Christmas….

A reblog from last Christmas! I will be away for Christmas and these are my favorites to share! Merry Christmas to one and all!

[image error] This is the time of year where children’s books take center stage and all around us we see magical stories, Fairies, stardust, Reindeer prancing, Elf’s in fancy hats, jingles bells everywhere and snow falling. Yuletide Christmas Trees are brightly decorated with lights that sparkle, twinkle, and seem to light up the world with their glow.  While dear St. Nick travels afar, just to bring gifts to one and all.  It is a time when we can believe that there is more to the world than we can imagine and the gift of children helps us to believe in a world more wonderful than we know, and that anything is possible, if we just believe it is so. 

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